January 29, 2010

John Sickels on Clevelan Santeliz

After futzing around as a starter unsuccessfully in 2008, Santeliz moved back to the bullpen in ’09 and was very impressive at times for Double-A Birmingham. He’s got a terrific fastball at 95-98 MPH, with movement, and he continued to make strides with his slider and splitter, though both pitchers remain erratic. He posted good K/IP and H/IP marks, but his walk rate was still high and that will hurt him at higher levels. There was a lot of good luck involved with the 0.96 ERA: his FIP was 4.00, much better than the 5.98 mark he posted in ’08, but showing that the ERA overstates how much he improved. I remain intrigued with his arm strength, but the control still worries me. Don’t overrate him based on the pretty ERA. Grade C.